2 Weekends ago we went to a lovely beach side resort in Marbella on the southern coast of Spain. Fortunately for us one of our friends Christina works with Marriot resorts back home in the states so she can get absurd discounts at amazing resorts.
As you can see it was just unreal. So nice the room slept 8 and we had 11 but we made some clever college sleeping arrangements and everyone was pretty comfortable for the whole weekend.
This resort featured an indoor heated pool, 2 outdoor pools, private beach access, a private super market, pretty much anything you could ever imagine needing they had.
Now just as an aside when I told my host mother we were going to Marbella she went, "Wow I didn't know you guys were so rich!" Because it turns out Marbella is basically Spain's French Riviera. This is where all the richest of the rich go in the summer when the weather is nice. Or as my friends host mother said, "That's where the Arabs go, and not the ones who work on Elvira street, the oil Sheiks."
So basically because Christina had the hook up we were at a beach that was well above any college kids pay grade and the funny thing was at this resort and in Marbella as a whole I heard more English than any other language. In fact when we were in the supermarket a guy came up to us and asked us to translate the words on a Spanish product.
But the beach was beautiful. And warm enough to lay out in February which is something completely foreign to me being from NJ and going to school in PA. Oh and one very interesting thing about the beach here....
You can see Africa from the beach.
Literally so close that when it got a little darker we could see lights from Africa.
And not just that, it was freakin beautiful.
That is the Straight of Gibraltar. Literally the southern most point of Europe and you could see the tip where it ended, look a little more left, boom, Africa. It was incredible.
And perhaps my favorite picture I've ever taken.
Plenty of people liked this on facebook, left comments, I even had one of my friends tell me she made it her computer desktop background so I'm pretty happy with this one.
All in all Marbella was a blast and huge props to Christina for hooking us up with that amazing room. Great time with great friends and plenty of laughs.
Okay so far so good, lets hammer out Cordoba now.
Cordoba
This was another one of the IES sponsored trips and it was required for some students who are taking certain classes at IES. I heard it was beautiful though and was excited about it so off we went.
So we started at the lost city of Madinat al-Zahr which was literally a city lost in the sands of time and for decades they have been doing excavating and reconstruction to bring it back to its former glory. Really amazing to be standing on the original ground that the creators stood on hundreds and hundreds of years ago.
Now to make a point though, as interesting as this was, we were all cold, tired, and hungry. And somehow the beauty and majesty of a thousand year old structure loses some of its zing when all you can think about is the sandwich you have in your pack and sitting down.
It was very interesting when all was said and done but I was happy to get back on the bus and EAT.
Next we traveled to the mezquita or mosque.
Now this is the oldest mosque in Spain which is definitely saying something. Very, VERY old and still a lot of the original structure exists and was preserved.
This was just an awesome statue outside of the mosque.
And this was a fountain of a guy riding a fat fish, don't know why but felt like it was worth taking a picture of.
Now the ceilings in mosques are always incredible and this one was no exception.
Then we moved onto the Christian part of the mosque. You may be saying, Christians? In a mosque? How does that work?
Well back when the Christians conquered the city of Cordoba they decided they didn't want a big ole mosque sitting in the middle of the city but seeing the intricacy and beauty of the structure they didn't want to destroy it. Also it would take years to build a structure as grandiose and beautiful as this so what they did instead was just hollowed out the middle and built a big church right in the center of the mosque. And honestly the only thing I can think of to compare it to is the big buildings in Lord of the Rings. You may laugh now but take a look at the pics.
This is where they housed the body of christ.
Go ahead and tell me you're not expecting some Hobbit to run out and tell you we need to destroy the ring looking at this.
Literally the change from mosque to church visible right there.
The church was breathtaking. The detail and intricacy of the designs, it's mind blowing to think that hundreds of years ago people were able to build these things. Honestly I don't know how we would make these buildings today let alone how they did it back before all the modern technology we have. The faces and designs in the walls of the church we just incredible. Really you have to see it to understand the scope of it.
Just some pictures of the outside of the mosque.
And that's it! Not bad about an hour all in all so not bad at all. I enjoyed Cordoba but it is far from my favorite city I have visited yet. Up next will be a blog entry about Carnaval in Cadiz and next week I'm heading to Ireland for Saint Patrick's Day so as you can imagine many more interesting stories and pics to come soon!
I love everybody back home and hope all is well!
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